We planted the Coastal Church Williamsburg campus two years ago, sending Pastor Colin and about 150 people from our Yorktown Campus. We have been blessed by Walsingham Academy to host us for this time to get the campus up and running. Now the campus attendance is over 500 each week. Because of our size and continued rapid growth, Walsingham has asked us to find a new location. They continue to graciously work with us, but the timeline is growing short.

We are pursuing the purchase of a building that is part of the old Williamsburg Pottery.

This location includes 44,000 square feet, 230 parking spaces, and two stop lights to manage the traffic flow. Once we purchase the building, we will have to do a build-out to make it ready for Sunday services. We will build it out as we have need and funding. To move in, we will need to build an auditorium to seat 1,000, Coastal Kids space, and some office space. This build-out must also include the purchase of equipment and furniture to execute our Sunday services.

We are in the process of having the property rezoned by James City County. If the rezoning is approved, we can move forward with a land assessment and purchase. We hope to close on this property by December of this year, but it is possible that we would not be able to close until early 2026. Once we close, we will start on the build-out right away and continue as we have funding. Our prayer is that we will be able to occupy the building before Christmas 2026.

Our Williamsburg Campus needs a building even if this one does not come through. We have a piece of land where we can build if the rezoning fails. Any funds collected through this building campaign will be used for whatever building we are able to secure.

We as a church are going to vote to borrow up to $5.65 million to purchase this building. (If we can close on the building before the end of 2025, we will be able to purchase it for $5.45 million.) Our goal is to raise $2–$2.5 million to get into the building and get it operational for Sunday services. We will build out what we can with the cash that we have. Once we are operational for Sunday services, we will continue to enhance the property as we have the funds.

We can handle the mortgage on this facility with our current budget cash flow even if we don’t grow as a church at all in 2026. We will need to tighten our belts for a time, but it is manageable.

The monthly mortgage will be between $31,500 and $34,000. This is well below what it would cost to rent a facility. The overall debt service on Coastal Church buildings will rise 4.5%, making our total debt services and balloon payments about 12% of our projected 2026 budget. This is very low considering that Coastal Church facilities house 3,500 people weekly. The numbers sound big, but financially, we are in a very healthy position even with this additional purchase.

We are one church with multiple campuses. As one church, we are all committed to furthering the Gospel, reaching the unchurched and unbelievers. As a family, we have a campus without a permanent home. Those who have attended Coastal even before the launching of the Williamsburg Campus have participated in campaigns that have benefited other campuses. We believe that our local body is Coastal Church, and that we each have a role to play in reaching the Williamsburg area.

It takes time for an endowment to grow, and we have been blessed by many at Coastal to have an endowment fund of a little over $1 million. We are discussing ways that we can utilize this fund to help with financing this project. However, it is not big enough at this time to carry the full scope of the project. Additionally, if we deplete the endowment fund at this formative time, it will reduce the funds available in the future. Our goal is to utilize it as much as possible through wise counsel so that we are good stewards of what God has given us. We are anticipating using Endowment for the first time for this project with the Endowment financing almost 10% of the project. Our intention is any balloon payments on debt services will first pay back the Endowment so it is positioned to continue growing and supporting future projects.

In the event that we move forward with the purchase of the Pottery location, we will sell the property we purchased for $370,000. All the income from the sale will be used to help offset the build out of the Pottery location, operating expenses and/or balloon payments.

Battery Park – batteryparkteams@gocoastal.org

Bethany Campus – bethanycampusteams@gocoastal.org

Chesapeake – chesapeaketeams@gocoastal.org

Gloucester – gloucesterteams@gocoastal.org

Hampton – hamptonteams@gocoastal.org

Williamsburg – williamsburgteams@gocoastal.org

Yorktown – yorktownteams@gocoastal.org